LeVar Burton Talks ‘Roots,’ ‘Star Trek’ & Strangest Fan Encounter

LeVar Burton is a Hollywood institution (and a very cool guy).

Spreading the love of reading for decades as host of Reading Rainbow, keeping Trekkies of the world glued to the screen during his time on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and blowing us all away in his breakout role as Kunta Kinta in the 1977 miniseries Roots, Burton’s talent has really stood the test of time (and genre).

Most recently, he played himself opposite Laurence Fishburne’s Doc Rivers in the FX limited series, Clipped, and he’s already onto his next project: being the host of the new CW reality competition series premiering Oct. 7 at 9pm, Trivial Pursuit. We recently sat down to talk about how nerds have taken over the world, his weirdest fan encounter, and what he still has from the set of Roots (among other things).